Charlie Manuel called this a “swing game” yesterday. Does the momentum shift from neutral to red after today? It’ll be up to Cole Hamels to do so. You know how good he’s been this season and into the playoffs, but this road challenge will be slightly different than Cincinnati. Bigger stage, bigger consequences should he come up with a sub-par outing. But if he doesn’t – if Cole Hamels is rock solid like he has been – the Phillies will be looking mighty fine heading into Game 3.

The good news is, the Phillies are 6-2 in Hamels’ eight starts against the Giants in his career. Here is what Hamels said yesterday:

“Postseason is where it’s at. It’s the ultimate time to really show what kind of player you are, what kind of pitcher you are,” Hamels said. “These are the types of games and types of moments when you set foot in spring training it’s the ultimate goal for the whole team to go out and enjoy.”

Our Cole Hamels said this, a complete turn around from a year ago when he just wanted it all to end after a terrible 2009. He’s poised and ready to go.

Matt Cain has had terrible results against the Phillies during his career, posting an 0-3 record with an ERA above six. Some people will say you can’t point to previous numbers, that this is a different “season.” I say bull. Cain will see a Phillies squad that has stayed relatively the same over the past four seasons.

Step up, Raul. It’s your turn to flip the switch and come up with a big time hit. Raul’s bat has slowed considerably as the season has progressed, but he’ll have to find a little pocket of energy to get through this slump. Ibanez is 0 for his last 11 and hasn’t had a hit since Game 2 of the Reds series on October 8. It’s been a long time coming. Step up, Raul.

Old Foghorn is based on traditional English barley wines. Because of the high original gravity, the yeast is unable to ferment all of the sugars. As a result, barley wine is high in alcohol, and is slightly sweet, due to the residual sugars. Old Foghorn also has a pleasant hop bitterness, due to the large quantity of hops used during brewing. I always enjoy that slight, slight bitterness with ales like that. And although I’m not a huge barleywine fan, Anchor Steam rarely produces a beer that sucks. Enjoy this San Franciscan treat while the Phils pummel the boys of the city

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206 Comments

Shane

October 19, 2010 at 2:45 pm

With the way Cole has been pitching lately I think we’ve got a great shot here. Hopefully, Jimmy as stirred from his slumber and his bat starts talking for the rest of the series. Cain has been pretty consistent down the stretch but the Phils have become used to dominating him. Hopefully they remember that! Let’s score early and often to put this away.

Winning today is 2 fold. It takes pressure off big Joe tomorrow.
I expect cole to shut them down to match Little Roy and better big Roy.
Big Roy on normal rest in SF is another no no waiting to happen.

If the phils win today i can see phils in 5. I really like big Joe tomorrow.

I predict a gem today by the Colester.
Tomorrow, another story. Although big Joe might pitch OK, Phils probably have another O-dud in their future or a BP meltdown. The series may go 7, definitely 6.
Pat, I’m thinking you did not get the responses you were thinking of for the Lee letter – too bad, I thought there would be a little more imagination/anger/innovative barbs coming from these guys… a lot of them are loaded!

I hope you’re right Andrew, wow do I hope you’re right. We all know they’re capable of greatness and some really beautiful baseball. After the 17 injured players & the kind of dreadful summer, they deserve to win. But they have to earn it. I want this over & done — Phillies the NLCS champs again!

That Yankees mess last night scared me. What a circus. Prior to this I thought they might keep Swisher. Now I think he’s likely done. Move in Carl Crawford. Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing them suffer. On the other hand, I couldn’t help thinking there’s a boatload of westcoasters hoping the same thing will happen to the Phillies. The thought of that made me just literally sick to my stomach.

I’m leaving work in a few to go home and watch the game. I’m about 15 min fr my apt. I never take off & haven’t had vacation in, uh . . . yrs (don’t ask).

Andrew: Sorry I didn’t answer your pressing question yesterday, heh heh. (working a lot lately) In nyc we hear ARoid’s seeing Cameron Diaz. You may be treated to close-ups of her plate-face every once-in-a-while during the ALCS. Lord knows she has time – she isn’t taking acting classes.

Our Phightins traveled to the city by the bay
I cannot wait for the game to get under way.
Hopefully the phils offense will continue to attack.
Show the Giants no mercy, cut them no slack.
Hope Chase or Ryan will sink a kayak.
The pitcher on the mound was our ’08 king
Phils win game 3, such a beautiful thing.

Edgar Renteria has always scared me but it’s obvious that his best days are clearly behind him. Sanchez is good when he’s healthy but, like Jimmy, he’s playing catch up right now. Posey is a young kid on the biggest stage… the lights have been a little too bright so far but I would be careful with him today. At some point, he’s going to realize that it’s just baseball and he’s pretty good at that. Champion of the streak, Pat the Bat… cold right now, thankfully. Don’t throw him a hanger and you should be fine. Rick Ross- elevated to “boss” status… pitch around him if you can. Huff might take offense to being dropped to 6th but he’s feeling the effects of a long season- not able to catch up with much. Uribe has a bad wrist… Uribe is probably their most consistent player so losing him was a big loss. Not sure if he’ll be able to catch up with the fastballs or extend to balls away with a bad wrist. Rowand… really?

I really wanted to see a fast start by our offense. Six up Six down. I agree that Raul’s bat has been slow (age is maybe showin) he is OVERDUE big time. This game is HUGE make no mistake. The game 3 winner in the nlcs (when its 1-1) has gone on to win 15 of the last 16 I believe joe buck said. Are you guys comfortable tomorrow with big joe
pitchin if were down 2-1 ? I want a comfortable win , that didnt happen sunday t’ill late in the game. The BIG MAN was on the ball in that 1st at bat and thats a good sign. I really think theyre gonna break out today its been a while and sundays 6 runs lit the fuse. Comfortable win 8-2 phils today , Rauls up now if he continues to struggle charlie has to lose the stubborness and put Ben in , …….. he struck out again geeezz

chuck p , i know what your saying cause i played up to college. I know what it feels like to be guessing off speed and seeing fastball , however
that was right there . That pitch is called a strike in the major leagues
90% of the time.

Aaron Rowand stinks. Still one of my least favorite Phillies of all time. Before each game, he brought a small hose and a pack of Marlboros to the ballpark so that he could go around blowing smoke up everybody’s butt.

I can’t remember Hamels every throwing his curve ball this much and for strikes. Its the best curve ball I’ve ever seen him throw and it’s clear he’s trying to go through the order the first time with alot of curves in order to set up his regular stuff later on.

that’s the biggest thing I’ve noticed so far in this game. the other thing I’ve noticed is Joe Buck’s completely over the top love of San Francisco. Seriously, he mentions every inning how wonderful it is. I wonder why a guy like Joe Buck would love a city like SF so much? wonder what part of town he’s staying in? I’m betting its the castro district.

I was just saying that I agree with you 100%… too close to take but sometimes you have to give the pitcher credit. Did you see the Yankees/Rangers game last night? I’ve never seen so many caught-looking third strikes over the middle of the plate in a game. That’s the same way Cain pitches- he’s not overpowering and his “stuff” isn’t quite as good as Lee’s but he controls the bat speed of the opposition and really pounds the strike zone low.

I tell you what , the big mans avg is creeping up this series. I know he’s not hitting hr’s yet but he’s getting the bat on the ball and getting on base. CHUCK S PREDICTION ABOUT TO COME TRUE RIGHT NOW !

What is the deal with Joe Buck? I have never met a single person who likes him. And I have friends from all over the country who support different teams. They all hate him. Why does Fox put him on everything?

Ibanez needs to be sat down he’s killing us at the plate and if he catches the ball in game 1 we win. He’s 0-9 now with how many strikeouts ? And no I dont forget what he did at times during the season. This is the playoffs no time to be sentimental or loyal.Problem is Charlie wont make the move which pisses me off. He’ll live or die with HIS guys. How many more times does raul have to strikeout , does he have to go 0-18 before charlie thinks about it ? Today theres a righty pitchin so i get it , but i would have played ben sunday against sanchez

you people are too reactionary. Raul is your best player to put in left field. He hasn’t hit yet but you gotta put your best players in the lineup. Raul hit over .300 since the all star break and with some good pop too. Thank god you’re not all managers or else we’d have Howard, Rollins, Ibanez, and others on the bench and we’d be starting Mike Sweeney, Greg Dobbs, and Wilson Valdez. lol

Hey Ryan H. Good time to NOT be reactionary. 3 more $hit games from Raul, and we’ll have all winter to NOT be reactionary. Spare me the lecture and realize that now IS the time to be reactionary. Can’t exactly wait for Raul to snap out of his funk, can we? If Charlie thinks like you (and he probably does) the season will be over soon…

hamels better shut down rowand, cain and renteria this inning. he needs a quick one after last inning. renteria’s batting .167, but of course hamels lost him on 2 strikes and gave him a leadoff hit last inning.

Why do they insist on pitching to Ross? What is the shame in going around him? He’s basically the entire Giants offense right now (Huff’s RBI be damned) so why bother going after him every time. He’s hot and that happens, especially in the playoffs, but smart baseball dictates not going after a player like that. LEt him stand on first and watch his teammates strike out just like Bonds did.

This is frustrating. Rollins, aside from his hit the other night, is still a black hole. Ibanez is doing nothing. They killed us in the 4th inning. Hitting w/RISP has been beyond disappointing. Cole was sailing through 3 innings, now he looks troubled. Not good signs.

I agree with JT. Raul’s gotta sit. And while he’s sitting, Ruben Amaro should be figuring out a way to get his a*s traded out of town next year and sign Werth to a long term deal, put Dom Brown in for Ibanez next year.

Werth had fat hanging curveball in the third inning w/ Howard on first. It was 2-0 and Cain just spun a hanger right over the heart of the plate. That ball should have been in the gap or in the seats for two runs. But instead, Werth just swung right through it. Utley has had two good pitches to hit and missed both. Raul and Polanco the same.

Lets see what theyre made of right now down 3-0 three more at bats. Isn’t it unbelieveable how this team just doesnt hit for Cole ? Long way from over but I’m starting to think its a karma thing when Coles on the mound. If the offensive struggles continue Charlie has to shake it up
and Raul sits 1st. It sure worked for Bochy today , his team was struggling and he made changes. Every button Bochy pushed today worked. Did you guys see the stats for the game 3 loser when the series is tied in the nlcs ? Wouldnt it be nice if they put a number up for Cole just once.

This Phillies team is getting older. Who knows if Utley is really that player. A few years is not enough. He is a horrible fielder. Killing us in the field. Bad throws in the past to first. Rollins, Utley, Howard, Werth, Ibanez just do not hit. We will be good for the next couple seasons but thats it. This team is getting older and they have got rid of all our young talent. Oh well

troutman is obviously not a phillies fan. either that or he’s that guy that nobody wants to watch the game with because he’s so damn miserable. probably complained that the world series parade wasn’t good enough.

Zero runs , really ? —— everyone had yankees/phillies WS written in stone. Could still happen but after today both teams have to win 3 of next 4 obviously. Like others have said the offense has been a problem all year we all just assumed they could flip a switch in the playoffs. Question is , will Charlie do anything tomorrow to try and shake it up ?
Bumgarner is a tough lefty , if Raul still starts tomorrow i’ll lose my mind.

I’m still confident that we’ll win this series. and if we lose tomorrow I’ll still not be that down knowing you got doc little roy and cole in a row.

right now it’s obvious that the shadows are really tough. the hitters can’t see anything. you’d have to manufacture something because nobody is gonna hit anything on the nose too hard. they just can’t see this time of day.

Morris,
Don’t get me wrong. The Giants are tough team with outstanding pitching.

But they’ve gotten some breaks today. Ross hit a ball off his shoe tops for an RBI hit. And Huff hits a seeing-eye single for another run. Then Utley butchers a ball that should have been the third out.

I haven’t seen that many tough at bats.

You need to be a little fortunate to win in the postseason (just like the Phils were fortunate against the Reds), and the Giants have been today.

I like your optimism Ryan H ——- Its possible but we really need to win tomorrow now. Three in a row is very very hard to do. I really cant wait to see if Charlie makes some changes tomorrow with Bumgarner on the mound. He has to play Ben in left doesnt he ?

The Giants are not swinging at balls six inches off the plate and weakly grounding them out or fouling them off. The Phillies are not making good contact. Raul has the only well hit ball since about the 3rd or 4th inning.

Shitty at bats for 2 weeks now and the GianTs have the pitching to shut us down. We make f’in Cody Ross look like Albert Pujols. Howard has no power all of a sudden, Werth is a joke and even Polanco is rolling over on pitches Victorino and Rollins might as well bat righty They suck as lefties. If Blanton starts tomorrow we may never make it back to Philly. He will give up runs and we can’t score enough to overcome his pitching. All of a sudden Cole can’t make a quality pitch with 2 strikes. This potent Philly offense is a bunch of pussies. The ratings for a Tex SF series will suck. I think we are doomed. We needed a sweep at home to start this off.IMO the Giants in 5.

The bottom line is that the phillies are in trouble. Tomorrow is must win and now Charlie and company will have to decided if Blanton or Halladay will go tomorrow. Whoever goes tomorrow can’t fix our offense though and that has hurt us the most. If we won game one we wouldn’t be in this predicament.

Your right about game 1 terri , would that be the game we lost cause we didnt make a certain catch in lf ? There were other reasons we could have won or lost that game but that non catch was huge. Rauls up now
with jimmy on 1st , now he’s 0-11 just hit in dp. I’m serious if he starts tomorrow against a tough lefty Charlie is a friggin idiot.

with Ibanez grounding into that double play…that is really the last I want to see of him for a while.

Definitely he needs to be on the bench tomorrow. If Francisco can produce, then he stays in the rest of the series. Charlie needs to shake it up a bit. I understand his loyalty to Rollins – many more years. Ibanez doesn’t have that.

Sportsphan – You may want to scroll back in this blog to July 21 when many people posting here proclaimed the Phillies season to be over. At that point in the season they were 48-46 and they had just lost their third straight game to the Cardinals (all in embarrassing fashion), and were seven games behind Atlanta. That was the day when so many fans here jumped off the bandwagon. Of course, from that day on the team went 49-19 and won the division rather easily.

If you think the series is over after being down 1-2 that’s fine. I’ll just wait until one of these two teams nails down it’s fourth win.

No run support for Cole is nothing new. That doesn’t make it any easier to watch, though.

Blanton will pitch because he’s guaranteed seven or eight runs. (Although against Bumgarner that may be wishful thinking.)

After making all kinds of noise about pitching around Ross, I felt Hamels had no choice in that situation but to pitch for the out. No way you pitch around him with two on.
And besides, he made a good pitch that Ross simply went down and got. That’s baseball.

This team has, (as Charlie put it), “gutted it out” all year. Injuries to almost every key player and prolonged batting slumps still couldn’t keep them from winning the east and taking out the Reds. Don’t EVER count this bunch out – certainly not now – they’re only down two games to one!

The Phils DO NOT have that same dynamic offense of 08 and 09. Ibanez has looked just terrible at the plate and his failure to hit with runners on base speaks volumes about where his body and mind are. He is just getting too old to play every day and should consider platooning with Francisco. He hurt us today, as did Utley in the field. What is up with Utley? Is he hurting as he looks lame at the plate, as well. Our asses were outplayed today by the Giants, it’s that simple.

I won’t say I’m not worried, but we’re not pitching against elimination tomorrow. Pitching Halladay tomorrow isn’t even on Charlie’s mind right now, I guarantee you guys. He’s looking ahead to Games 5, 6, and 7. I’ve been saying since we found out we were playing the Giants this series is going at least six games.

I’m an Utley fan, but he was a complete joke today. He looked like a Reds player in the playoffs.

As we’re not facing elimination tomorrow, I would not have a problem with benching Raul Ibanez. It’d be different if he was making consistent contact and just sending them right at fielders, but he looks lost. A damn shame, considering what he’s done for us this year, but I hope Charlie considers giving Raul a break and sending Francisco in.

I would also like to see someone other than Gload being first in line for pinch-hitting. Since there’s no way Blanton goes past seven tomorrow, Charlie will PROBABLY have a chance to send up two pinch-hitters. Put Mike Sweeney or Dom Brown in there.

In conclusion… Worrisome. But it’s not time to press the panic button yet.